A deep space survey ship is lost on the fringes of a distant star system, victim of a sneak attack. A nuclear terror plot is foiled on the outskirts of Washington, DC, and the evidence points to the company that holds the key to interstellar travel, and a conspiracy is ‘uncovered’ pointing to this same company.

Casimir Bridge, a first novel by Darren D. Beyer is a science fiction-thriller that covers four star systems, and, thanks to the author’s background as a NASA engineer, the technical details, even those describing systems that don’t yet exist, come across as entirely credible. The action switches back and forth between the efforts of a young journalist, Mandisa Khosi, who has stumbled across a byzantine plot to gain incredible power, and Jans Mikel, the CEO of AIC, the company that’s the target of an extremely hostile takeover by a powerful man who will stop at nothing to gain even more power. Beyer’s descriptions of space travel are richly detailed and credible, as are the accounts of the intrigue and political maneuvering that goes on behind the scenes.

Great science fiction, but on a deeper level, if you take away the interstellar travel and violence, the author could be describing events taking place in the present day. The unbridled pursuit of power that characterizes modern-day politics is on full display in this nonstop thrill-a-minute story.

Beyer is definitely a science fiction author to keep an eye on, and this story ends on a cliffhanger that makes me anxious to read the sequel.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review. I give it five stars, and await the next one.